City Moves for 17 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 16, 2014 Baker Tilly The professional services firm has announced the appointment of Rob Donaldson as head of corporate finance. He previously held roles at KPMG Corporate Finance. Aldermore The bank has made two appointments to its asset finance team. Emma Irving joins as head of materials handling from BNP Paribas. Nova Everidge joins as head of new business [...]
Late dash for online gifts over Christmas gives UK Mail a boost January 15, 2014 LAST-MINUTE online shopping over Christmas helped boost revenues at delivery company UK Mail, the firm said yesterday. Parcel volumes were up 15 per cent in the final three months of the year, and mail volumes also rose from last year’s levels. “It is clear from weekly volume patterns that shoppers were, more than ever before, [...]
Who will build the roads (after these capacity constraints)? January 13, 2014 Since the New Year, a number of surveys have been pretty explicit about new constraints on the supply of materials and labour in specific industries. Last week, the British Chambers of Commerce said that 81 per cent of manufacturers are reporting difficulties in recruitment, the highest on record. In Services, it’s 60 per cent, perhaps more [...]
A recovery built on bricks and mortar January 12, 2014 Bovis chief executive David Ritchie tells Elizabeth Fournier why he’s not concerned about a new UK housing bubble THE LAST 12 months have been good ones for Britain’s housebuilders. After a financial crisis that saw billions wiped off the sector as credit dried up and house prices crashed, 2013 saw a return to form as [...]
A two-speed high street January 9, 2014 A CLEAR split between Britain’s winners and losers in the battle for consumers’ cash this Christmas emerged yesterday, as three of the biggest retail chains revealed worse-than-expected trading. Poor results from Tesco, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer added to dreary updates from Sainsbury’s and Mothercare, with heavy discounting, weak consumer spending and the rising discount [...]
Growth creates drought of London job candidates January 8, 2014 A SKILLS squeeze is hitting London while companies across the UK are also finding it increasingly hard to find appropriate staff, a report by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG reveals today. As the economy recovers, employers are reporting a shortage of skilled candidates for vacancies. According to the survey, the drop in availability [...]
City Moves for 9 January 2014 | Who’s switching jobs January 8, 2014 YFM Equity Partners The private equity firm has announced the appointment of Paul Cook as chief operating officer. Cook was previously managing director of Access IS, and has also held roles at KPMG, PwC, Sonatest, American Standard and William Baird. BNP Paribas The bank has appointed Gildas Surry as senior credit analyst for European banks. Surry has [...]
New car sales hit post-crisis high January 7, 2014 BRITONS bought 2,264,737 new cars last year, the highest sales rate since 2007 and better than industry forecasts. Showrooms shifted 10.8 per cent more new vehicles than they did in 2012, with analysts pointing to windfalls from PPI compensation, attractive finance packages and a hunt for more fuel-efficient cars as the main drivers of growth. [...]
The year in preview: Our in-depth guide January 5, 2014 City A.M.’s journalists take a wide-ranging look at what 2014 has in store for the world of finance and business BANKINGRestoring faith means costly overhaulsA CAUTIOUS optimism pervades the British and European banking system at the start of 2014. The incoming economic recovery is at last improving customers’ creditworthiness, while the hard work running down [...]
A Merry Christmas and thanks for your support during 2013 December 19, 2013 AFTER months of speculation about how the markets would react to the gradual phasing out of monetary stimulus in the US, we got part of our answer over the last 36 hours. And, it has to be said, it’s so far so good. Some assumed that even a hint of a tightening of monetary policy [...]